"I cannot tell you much about going up in a balloon, but I can tell you something about getting along pleasantly down here upon the earth, which I think may be of service to you."
"What is it?" said James.
"Why, that you will neither of you get along very pleasantly until you can bear to have any body else mistaken, without contradicting them.
James, you think Nathan is mistaken about the size of a balloon, do you?"
"Yes, I know he is," said James.
"Well," said Jonas, "now why not let him remain mistaken?"
"Why,--I don"t know," said James.
"He isn"t willing to be convinced, is he, that a balloon is as big as a house?"
"No," said James, "he is not."
"Then why don"t you let him remain unconvinced? Why should you insist on setting him right, when he don"t want to be set right?"
"And you, Nathan, suppose that James is mistaken, in thinking that the balloon is so big."
"Yes," said Nathan, "and that men can get into it, and go up in the air."
"Well, now, if he wants to believe that balloons are so big, why are you not willing that he should? Why should you insist upon it that he should know that they are smaller?"
"Because I _know_," said Nathan, very positively, "that they are small; and, besides, the paper would not be strong enough to bear a man."
"I did not ask you," said Jonas, "why _you_ believed that men could not go up in balloons, but why you were so anxious to make James believe so.
Why not let him be mistaken?"
"Why--because," said Nathan.
"You see, Nathan," continued Jonas, "the world is full of people that are continually mistaken; and if you go about trying to set them all right by disputing them, you"ll have a hard row to hoe."
"A hard what?" said Nathan.
"A hard row to hoe," repeated Jonas. "It"s never of any service to attempt to convince people that don"t want to be convinced; especially if they are wrong."
"Especially if they are wrong!" repeated Rollo, in astonishment.
"Yes," replied Jonas. "The very worst time to argue with a boy, is when he is wrong, and does not want to be set right. It is a great deal harder to get along in argument with one who is right, than with one who is wrong; for the one who is wrong, disputes; the one who is right, reasons."
"Well, Jonas," said James, "which of us was disputing?"
"Both of you," said Jonas.
"Both of us," said James; "but you said that only the one who was wrong, disputed."
"Well," replied Jonas, "you were both wrong."
"Both wrong! O Jonas!" said James.
"Yes, both wrong," replied Jonas; and so saying, he was going away to his work.
"But stop a minute longer," said James, "and tell us how it is about the balloon; we want to know."
"O no," said Jonas, "you don"t want to know; you want to _conquer_."
"What do you mean by that?" said Nathan.
"Why, you don"t really wish to learn any thing; but you want to have me decide the case, because each of you hopes that I shall decide in his favor. You want the pleasure of a victory, not the pleasure of acquiring knowledge."
"No, Jonas," said Nathan, "we do really want to know."
"Well," said Jonas, "I can"t stop now to tell you; perhaps I will this evening; but I advise you always, after this, not to contradict people, and dispute with them, when they say things that you don"t believe. Do as the gentleman did, when the man said the moon was a fire."
"What did he do?" said Rollo.
"Why, he let him say it as much as he wanted to."
"Tell us all about it," said James.
"Well, then," said Jonas, "once there was a man, and he saw the moon coming up behind the trees, and thought it was a large house burning up.
He went along a little way, and he met a vulgar fellow, riding in a carriage."
"Riding in a carriage!" repeated Rollo, astonished.
"Yes," said Jonas, "handsomely dressed. "Sir," said the man, "see that great fire!"
""It isn"t a fire, you fool," said the vulgar fellow; "it"s nothing but the moon."
""The moon! no it isn"t," said the man; "it is a monstrous great fire.
Don"t you see how it blazes up?"
""It is not a fire, I tell you," said the vulgar fellow.
""I tell you "tis," said the man.
""You don"t know any thing about it," said the vulgar fellow.
""And you don"t know the moon from a house on fire," said the man, and so pa.s.sed on.
"A minute or two after this, he met a gentleman driving a team."
"A gentleman driving a team!" said James.
"Yes," said Jonas, "with a frock on. He was tired and weary, having driven all day. The man asked him if he did not see that house on fire.
""Ah," said the gentleman, "I thought it was the moon."